TRAVEL IN BRIEF 16/12

New sea tour to Phu Quoc Island

Phu Quoc beach.Hong Kong’s Royal Group will bring its five-star cruise ship, Jupiter Cruises, to Viet Nam for the Phu Quoc Island-Shihanouk Ville route, which will be available before Christmas.
This will be the first 5-star cruise service for Phu Quoc, a joint-service offered by Royal Group and Viet Nam’s Sea Star Corp.
The nine-story Jupiter Cruise is 178m long, 22m wide, and has around 400 cabins. It can serve 1,000 passengers at once, offering conference rooms, restaurants, bars, karaoke, shopping malls, and beauty and entertainment services.
The Sea Star Corp and Royal Group plan to build a tourism port in Phu Quoc. Currently Jupiter Cruises will have to anchor in Duong Dong, 2km offshore of Phu Quoc.

Tet preparations begin

HCM City will host the annual Nguyen Hue Flower Street Festival as part of the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, which will include entertainment and charity events.
The festival will feature the Banh Tet (glutinous rice cake) fest and fireworks displays, said Saigontourist Holdings Co., the organiser of the event. Nguyen Hue, Le Loi and Dong Khoi streets will be decorated with lights from December 18 to January 1, and from January 18 to February 14 for the Lunar New Year celebrations. Fireworks will be displayed at six locations on New Year’s Eve.
Tran Hung Viet, deputy general director of Saigontourist, said some 10,000 pieces of banh tet will be donated to the poor. Business community sponsorship money will also be given to charity. Saigontourist will spend more than VND10 billion (US$650,000) for the festival.

Hue attracts more cruise visitors

Thua Thien-Hue has welcomed 20,000 foreign cruise tourists so far this year months of the year, a four-fold increase over 2007. Most cruise ships docking at Chan May Port are luxury liners. The largest ship is the 5-star Queen Elizabeth II, which brought 2,000 tourists to the country.
The cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas of the US Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines brought an additional 2,000 foreign tourists to the province. During the call at Chan May Port, foreign passengers visited attractions in Hue, Hoi An, and Da Nang.

New spa resort in Binh Thuan

Princess d’Annam Resort&Spa has opened doors in Binh Thuan Province. The 9ha resort is a blend of styles that mixes the traditional, bold Eastern identity with the stunning and sophisticated opulence of French culture. Jean Philippe Beghin, the resort’s general director, said, "This style helps make a special impression on guests as soon as they set foot on the property."

More buses to Cambodia

The HCM City-based Sapaco Tourist Company began to increase bus tours between the city and Cambodia on December 4, the day the Viet Nam-Cambodia visa exemption for ordinary passport holders takes effect.
In HCM City, the company now operates seven buses every day to Phnom Penh instead of five previously, departing at 6am, 7am, 8am, 9am, 10am, 11.30am and 1pm.
In Phnom Penh, the seven buses leave for HCM City at 6am, 7am, 8am, 9am, 11.30am, 1pm and 2pm.
In addition, Sapaco’s buses between HCM City and Cambodia’s Siem Reap now run daily instead of every two days.

Tourists hunt for war souvenirs

Visitors to the former battlefields in the central province of Quang Tri often buy valuable war keepsakes like identity tags, coins, zippo lighters, US coins and canteens from waste collectors.
Tran Ha, a reputed collector and provider of war objects for tourists in Khe Sanh Town, in the province’s Huong Hoa District, said the war souvenirs he sold were provided by waste collectors in the district.
(Source: Viet Nam News)

Vietnam to cut tour fees immediately to lure travellers

A senior official of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said that on December 15 VNAT began hurriedly compiling a plan on cutting fees on tours for foreign tourists to lure more travellers.Foreign tourists in Vietnam

The official said that the plan would be ready for the meeting between VNAT and international travel firms, luxury hotels in HCM City and the national air carrier Vietnam Airlines to be held by the end of this week. Details of the plan, which markets the tour fee decreases will be applied to, how much the tour fees will be cut, and how long the special programme will last, will be decided soon.

“For the immediate time, Vietnam still can attract Russian, Japanese, French, Australian and South Korean travellers who have cancelled tours to India and Thailand if we launch some tours with attractive tour fee decreases,” said Vietnam Airlines’ General Director Pham Ngoc Minh.

Vietnam Airlines has suggested that involved parties join forces to focus on some key markets, in which Vietnamese enterprises can offer competitive products.

Price decreases will be different for different markets, and only travel firms that join the campaign will be able to enjoy preferential prices.

VNAT is going to chair two additional similar meetings in Hanoi and the central city of Da Nang to announce the decisions on tour fee decreases as soon as possible.

According to Director of the HCM City Culture, Sports and Tourism Department La Quoc Khanh, it is necessary to persuade shops to join forces with travel firms, hotels and air carriers to create low-cost tours. Thailand, for example, announced the tour fee reduction of $39/traveller for tours associated with shopping, while the travellers are led to shops which registered to join the low-cost tours.

Vietnam witnessed the sharp fall of the tourism industry in 2008 and has forecast a 0% or minus growth rate in the first half of 2009.

A conference discussing ways to lure foreign travellers to Vietnam was held on December 11. It was criticised as being late but ‘better late than never’.

At the conference, Minh from Vietnam Airlines urged travel firms, hotels and involved parties to compile an action plan to attract more clients in the context of the expanded global financial crisis, the political uncertainties in Thailand, which are expected to take 6-7 months at least to recover, and the terrorism case in Mumbai, India. Minh said that in these conditions, tourists will prefer safe destinations with reasonable tour fees.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in the first 11 months of the year, Vietnam attracted 3.87mil international travelers.

(Source: Tuoi tre, VietNamNet)

Russians to get visa exemptions from New Year

From January 1 next year, Vietnam will grant visas exemptions to Russians who have valid passports, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, the number of Russian tourists visiting Vietnam is increasing strongly.Vietnam will be the third Southeast Asian country, after Thailand and Laos, to grant visa exemptions to Russian citizens who enter for tourism purposes.To be granted a visa exemption to stay in Vietnam for 15 days or less, Russian visitors must have a valid passport and a return or onward ticket. For stays longer than 15 days, Russian tourists can apply for to the Ministry of Public Security or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a visa extension.
(Source: SGGP)

Hoi An receives nearly 450,000 tourists

Since early this year, Hoi An City known as a World Culture Heritage Site in the central province of Quang Nam has received nearly 450,000 tourists, including more than 320,000 foreigners, earning VND28 billion from selling visiting tickets.

To attract tourists to the ancient city during Christmas and New Year holiday, Hoi An Culture and Sport Centre will organise a number of activities such as traditional art performances, street festival, a cultural fair of ethnic minority groups and meetings with foreigners. The centre’s director Vo Phung said that visitors can enjoy a street festival on New Year’s Eve and a cultural fair featuring specialities of each ethnic minority group.
(Source: VOV)

Vietnamese tourists warned to avoid Thailand

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST) has warned Vietnamese people not to travel to Thailand at this moment. Travel companies, meanwhile, are suffering heavy losses as they have customers stranded in the country.

International passengers stuck at Bangkok-based Suvarnabhumi Airport (photo AP)

The MoCST told the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), local tourism departments and travel firms to keep updated on information about the situation in Thailand to ensure security for Vietnamese tourists.

Nguyen Manh Cuong, VNAT’s Vice Chief, said many local travel companies have been seriously hit by Thailand’s uncertainties because they have had to pay a lot for stranded visitors.

“When the international airport in Bangkok was closed, many foreign passengers on their way to Vietnam were affected because they had to transit at this airport,” Cuong said.

Not only Vietnam, some other countries such as China, Singapore, Australia and the US have also advised their citizens not to go to Thailand at this time. Others have advised their citizens to re-consider plans to go to the beleaguered country or at least avoid areas where there are demonstrations.

According to the Tourism Administration of Thailand, around 600 Vietnamese people were stuck in Bangkok. Many of them have had to return home overland. Many travel companies have cancelled tours to Thailand, including tours to Phuket, where the AFF Cup 2008 was scheduled to be organised.

(Source: VNE)